The move comes less than a month after a much ballyhooed U.S.
congressional investigation that labeled Chinese telecommunications companies a security threat to U.S. networks. So one could be forgiven for thinking this is a case of tit for tat.

According to MorningWhistle, Cisco occupies a huge chunk of both the 163 backbone network and 169 backbone network. Those two networks reportedly deliver more than 80 percent of the data passing through the country's Internet.

Apple's Samsung Notice Served With Side of Snark

In accordance with a UK
court ruling in July, Apple posted a notice on its UK website conceding that Samsung did not, after all, infringe upon Apple's registered designs.

However,
the notice -- which Apple initially complained was akin to an advertisement for the competition -- is not particularly apologetic.

In particular, Apple reminds readers that the judge in the UK case said Samsung's designs didn't infringe upon Apple because, alas, Samsung's were
"not as cool." Apple also points out that courts in Germany and the U.S. have ruled against Samsung.

The case that prompted Apple's notice questioned Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, Tab 8.9 and Tab 7.7, each of which were found not to step on Apple patents.

As part of the ruling, which was
unsuccessfully appealed, Apple must keep the notice up for six months (or until further notice), and is required to publish notifications in the Financial Times, the Daily Mail, the Guardian, Mobile magazine and T3 magazine,
according to InformationWeek

French Prez Backs Pay-to-Link Search Law

Francois Hollande, the French President, supports a law that would force search engines to pay for displaying links to newspaper articles,
according to Reuters.

Google, which is seemingly the focal point of this proposal,
has warned that it might block French media outlets from its results should the law go through.

Hollande, who said the fee could be implemented as soon as January, was slated to meet with Google's Eric Schmidt on Monday.

In a letter to French ministerial offices a few weeks ago,
Google said that it drives 4 billion clicks per month toward French outlets. France, however, claims that Google makes advertising revenue on pages that index the articles.

According to Reuters, other European countries are considering similar legislation.

Chinese Critics Upset About Siri's Lascivious Side

Parents and lawyers have urged Apple to cleanse Siri's dirty little mind -- or at least introduce a feature that prevents children from accessing "distasteful information."

The new iOS 6 is the first to support Chinese, although English versions of Siri have also been known to locate, shall we say,
special companions.

A Beijing-based lawyer in the China Daily article says that Siri might not actually be breaking the law by disseminating this information -- even if prostitution itself is illegal -- the service has nonetheless "affected the public order and had a negative influence."